...replacing grep { $_ =~ ".gz" } with grep { /\.gz$/ } or being lazing and using <*.gz>
Done. Since I am already defining the ".gz" extension in a variable, I can just pass that information to the "clean_up()" routine, cool.

...using bound variables with bind_col and bind_columns ...using File::Path to remove directories in a portable way
++ for giving me something new to learn about, cheers!